FAQ

What is MoleMate™?

MoleMate is a non-invasive, rapid and painless mole-screening technology which enables physicians to scan a patient’s moles, so they will be able to quickly and accurately determine whether a biopsy is recommended, or reassure a patient that the mole is benign.

What technology does MoleMate™ utilize?

MoleMate uses SIAscopy, which is a non-invasive skin-imaging technology that can help physicians screen for skin cancers. The use of this technology can reduce the need for biopsies and excisions of moles that are not suspicious. The process uses harmless light and digital imaging to evaluate the patient’s skin.

What does the word SIAscopy™ mean?

SIAscopy is Spectrophotometric Intracutaneous Analysis, and utilizes a handheld LED-Light based spectrophotometer. SIAscopy projects visible and infra­-red light to create an image of key components just beneath the patient’s skin.
SIAscopy reveals the position, spatial distribution, and concentration of epidermal melanin, dermal melanin, hemoglobin, and collagen, representing critical markers to determine the condition of the mole or lesion.

What can be seen using MoleMate™ (SIAscopy™)?

Within seconds, the MoleMate proprietary software creates images by “looking” 2mm beneath the skin’s surface to provide five distinct images to aid in a physician’s diagnosis:
Dermatoscopic view – A clear and magnified view of the mole as it appears on the surface of the patient’s skin, helping physicians identify important features.Melanin view – This view confirms to physicians that the mole is a melanin lesion
Dermal melanin view – Establishes the presence and distribution of melanin in the deeper layers of the skin. This may be important in differentiating a suspicious from a non-suspicious mole.
Blood supply view – This view shows changes in blood supply that can be an early indicator raising the suspicious associated with the moles or lesion.
Collagen view – Assists assessment of the damage to lower layers of the skin, thereby identifying suspicious moles and lesions.
The technology also allows the physician to share the images with the patient during the exam/counseling, store and catalogue the images for comparison over time as well as share the data and images with other physicians.

How can physicians get trained in this technology?

MoleMate comes with an interactive 2-hour training CD which has been documented to improve primary care physicians’ sensitivity and specificity over clinical assessment alone, resulting in an increase in the number of suspicious moles and lesions diagnosed and thereby an increase in the quality of referrals to dermatologists.

How is MoleMate™ integrated into the patient examination?

First the patient’s skin is visually inspected, then, using the hand-held MoleMate SIAscope, each mole that requires detailed examination is quickly and painlessly scanned. Images are displayed on- screen whereby it is analyzed by the physician during the examination.

Can MoleMate™ generate a report?

What are the reimbursement codes for MoleMate™?

It is recommended that until a specific SIAscopy code is obtained from the AMA, that physician's bill for dermoscopy, and attach a copy of the PDF report. The first view generated in MoleMate is a digital dermoscopic view. Some insurance carriers prefer to only pay in patients with a personal or family history of suspicious moles.

Note: For physicians that typically would have referred patients after visual inspection of suspicious moles, they may now, with SIAscopy, be able to more confidently manage these moles in their own practice, billing for the performed procedure (cutting, biopsy, freezing) following the use of MoleMate.